When the woman pointed the gun at him, Diolan held up his hands as if to calm her.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Camilla, calm down. I don’t know why you’re so angry, but we’re not that bad together, are we?”
“Ha. This kid thinks of people as fools now. You must be the only one who thinks that way!”
Camilla's growling voice was filled with animosity towards Diolan.
Osian wondered. If she was supposed to be his friend who would show him around the 45th district, why was she acting like they were enemies?
“Is she an ex-lover? Judging from how angry she is, it seems like you cheated on her.”
“What? Ex? It's not like that!”
“A relationship with a kid like that? You little punk, you want to get a hole in your head too!”
Apparently not, because she got even angrier.
Camilla said, her eyes unrelenting.“Don't tell me you've forgotten. You didn't clean up your act that day in the 44th district, you just dumped it on me and got away with it.”
The way she said it, it sounded like she'd been working with Diolan, and then he dumped her.
“Did you really do that?”
“No, I was busy.”
Diolan's reaction seemed to confirm the truth.
“Do you know how many months I've suffered for your sake, having my life threatened by those other bastards, and now you show that disgusting face of yours to me again? Come on, let's see you die today.”
Camilla pulled the trigger of her pistol.
‘You won't be able to kill Diolan with an ordinary gun.’
I'm sure Camilla knows that but the threat was real, which means that the pistol itself is no ordinary object.
It was ridiculous to think that a common firearm would be used in this area in the first place but Osian didn't want to check it out for himself.
First things first.
“Take it easy. We didn’t come here to fight you.”
“Stay out of it or are you saying that you want to be treated the same way? You seem confident in your skills, but you need to know how to distinguish between places where you can get involved.”
“Care to check?”
Osian said, revealing the sword at his waist, and Camilla's expression turned puzzled.
As if to say, “What is this guy carrying this thing for?”
Her anger softened, if only slightly, and Diolan seized the moment.
“Camilla, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to do that, and I'll make it up to you later, but can you just let it go for now?”
Smiling and talking to her in a friendly way always makes her feel better but Camilla's scowl bared her teeth.
“Stop talking nonsense. How many times have you said that and then just ignored me? It's been four times already! Damn it!”
“Four times?”
Osian glanced back at Diolan as if to ask if that was true.
At this point, he should be grateful that Camilla hadn't pulled the trigger right away.
Slightly intimidated by Osian's gaze, Diolan made a mosquito-like excuse.
“No, it just happened to be.......”
......It wasn't even an excuse. It was an admission of guilt.
Besides, “somehow” is a line from the perpetrator.
“Now that's a good enough reason, right?”
“Yes. I've been a nuisance.”
Osian moved aside.
“You're a good talker. What's your name?”
“Osian, a fixer.”
“I'm Camilla. I'm a good person who lives here.”
“Goodness be damned.”
Diolan grunted, and Camilla's axe-eyes turned to him.
The muzzle of Camilla's gun is pointed at Diolan, and Diolan swallows hard and tenses.
-BANG!
The trigger was pulled and a shot rang out.
The bum who had been sneaking up behind Camilla was shot and fell to the ground.
Camilla didn't shoot Diolan; instead, without looking back, she shot the bum who had been sneaking up on her.
On the ground, the bum writhed.
‘Did she miss? No, no, no, she missed on purpose.’
Osian's judgment was correct.
“Aaaaah!”
The writhing tramp screamed in agony, his hands scratching frantically at his throat.
Upon closer inspection, his veins were stained green, centered on the spot where he'd been shot.
It spread up his neck and into his head, and he collapsed, foaming at the mouth, eyes rolling back in his head.
He didn't even stir and was dead.
The corpse reeked of a chemical stench, like poison.
“There are still people out here who dare to mess with me.”
“Well, that's to be expected with the number of people who've been washed up here.”
Diolan decided it was about time, and he tried to cheer Camilla up.
Camilla glared at him, then sighed and slid her pistol into the holster at her waist.
“Come with me. No good can come of standing here.”
Not that things had gone well, but it felt like they had.
Osian and Diolan followed Camilla because they didn't have to fight.
Osian looked at Camilla again.
‘I knew it was a special pistol, but I didn't realize the bullets themselves were so threatening.’
Instead of the usual lead bullets, they were specially treated chemicals.
It's no wonder the hoodlums scattered in fear when Camilla appeared.
If they were just going to die, anyone would be afraid of dying after all that pain.
'Even junkies with a little bit of a brain don't like it.’
As dangerous as she is, Camilla’s behavior is fundamentally due to the harsh conditions in the 45th district.
It's badly policed. It's dangerous. You can't be sure of your life.
I'm not saying this for nothing. In fact, those words don't even begin to capture the danger of the 45th district.
We followed Camilla from building to building.
It was too complicated to find our way back the way we came. The buildings in the 45th district are not standardized.
They were all different sizes and shapes. The only thing that was the same was the green grime on the exterior walls from old chemicals, but the rest was chaos.
Unless you have a map, you're bound to get lost.
As we continued walking, the number of vagrants dwindled.
Instead, I saw lights.
‘Neon?’
As we left the narrow streets, I saw neon signs one after another.
One by one, the multicolored signs were revealed. When we finally emerged onto the main street, Osian was greeted by a blindingly bright feast of lights.
“This is it. This is the real 45th district.”
Diolan said proudly.
The street with the hobos after getting off the train was only the surface of the 45th district.
The real thing is deeper.
This bustling area, with its wide streets, street vendors, and colorful neon signs everywhere, was the real 45th district.
-Pow, pow.
A purple liquid bubbled out of a large glass tube, and near it, funky-looking people were smoking hookahs with liquid in their mouths.
Some were freakishly large, others as small as a dwarf.
There weren't only humans. There were a lot of orcs, and some even looked like mermaids.
I wonder if this is what harmony in chaos feels like.
'If anything, it's almost dizzying at this point.’
Compared to the old Tirna, it was almost as if they were in a different country.
“Okay, one at a time.”
Camilla helped Diolan and Osian find large robes that covered their bodies.
“If you walk around in something like that, you're blatantly advertising yourself as an outsider, so cover up with this.”
“Oh. Is that a gift?”
“I'm not giving it away. I'm going to get paid for it.”
The three walked through the crowded streets of the bazaar. Anywhere without guards, I would have thought security would be broken, but it wasn't.
“Interesting?”
Osian asked, his eyes constantly scanning the area. Camilla laughed.
“Did you think it would be a bigger mess than you thought?”
“I can't deny it.”
“Well, people from other districts are bound to have preconceived notions, but as you can see, we have our own rules and regulations, and it's not like you can just walk down the street and get shot.”
Before she could finish, a fistfight broke out on one side of the street.
Camilla shrugged as she watched them tangle, punching each other until blood spurted and bones broke.
“Well, that's just the way they are.”
At that point, it wasn't that there weren't any accidents, but that the threshold for an accident was too high?
Osian didn't bother to point it out.
“Here.”
The house where Camilla brought Osian and Diolan was a normal-sized house.
At the entrance, a man in a black mask leaned back against the wall with his arms crossed, but he straightened as soon as he saw Camilla.
“Sister Camilla, you're here.”
“Uh huh.”
“And the two behind you......are outsiders?”
“They're my guests, so get out of the way.”
“Is that.......”
Camilla narrowed her eyes, and the man who appeared to be her subordinate moved out of the way.
Inside was unremarkable. It was just a normal home, a place where people could stay, though the faint green coloring of the interior did give it an odd sensation.
Camilla removed the mask from her mouth and placed it on the table.
“Whoa. So, what do you need?”
She was quite a beauty, even under the mask.
Diolan glanced at Osian. He was a helper, after all. It had to be Osian who ran things.
“I'm looking for people.”
“There are several people here, and if you can't tell me exactly who, I don't know.”
“Do you know about this thing?”
Osian held out a small vial of reagent to Camilla.
Camilla's eyes narrowed as she took it.
“This is.......”
“Recently, there was a magical rampage at the Magic Academy in District 30. And all the magicians who went berserk had consumed a similar drug. When we obtained the drug and analyzed its ingredients, we found that it was an ingredient used in District 45.”
“I see. It's not every day that someone makes something that dangerous, even in Tirna.”
Camilla sat back in her chair and crossed one leg.
She pulled what looked like a cigarette from the inside pocket of her cape.
“Can I have one?”
“The landlord said so, so why not?”
I say “cigarette-like” because it was no ordinary cigarette.
It was a cigarette in a small glass jar with a green liquid inside.
Camilla took a puff, took a breath, and blew it out.
The green color mingled with her breath.
“So. Where do I begin?”
It was then that Camilla began to explain.
“First of all, there's a lot of different gangs in the 45th, but there are three really big ones, and they're practically sharing the area.”
All three gangs use drugs, and the colors of the drugs they deal in are different.
Emerald deals with green drugs.
Topaz, which deals with yellow drugs
Amethyst, deals with purple drugs.
Each organization struck a balance within the 45th district, sometimes working together and sometimes working against each other.
“So, does that mean you're an Emerald?”
“Not fully Emerald, more like a guest of honor. Someone like me has to rely on the organization for minimal safety in this district.”
“I see.”
“Anyway, looking at this drug, it's easy to tell where it came from. It's purple, so the Amethyst must have made it.”
“Come to think of it, the guy I fought used it. It healed his wounds, strengthened his flesh, and even turned his bones into blades.”
Camilla twisted her lips up.
“Physical transformation. A hallmark of Amethyst's drug.”
Apparently, the drugs weren't just color-coded, but each one had unique properties.
“So you're saying Amethyst had something to do with this.”
“Most likely, but I don't think we've come all this way just to find out. What do you think you're doing?”
“I'm going to catch the person responsible for this.”
“......Really?”
Camilla asked in surprise.
Coming to the 45th district, their backyard, and making such a bold statement about messing with Amethyst?
“If you want to die quickly, you should have just hung yourself nearby, you're doing something tiring.”
“All you have to do is tell us where they are. I don't want anything else.”
“Ha. You've got some serious liver, but I don't hate a man who's that determined.”
Camilla stood up.
“But it's too late for tonight, so we'll talk tomorrow. I'll let you sleep here for the night.”
Osian exchanged a glance with Diolan, then nodded.
For now, gathering information was a priority.
“Your room is on the second floor, down the hall. Good night, and I'll see you tomorrow.”
Camilla waved and left, leaving Osian and Diolan to survey their assigned rooms.
Two beds and one closet were just enough space for a guest.
Nothing was out of the ordinary.
“Let's get a good night's rest, and then we'll work hard tomorrow.”
“......Yes.”
It was late at night, so they went straight to sleep.
After a considerable amount of time had passed a wisp of pure white smoke wafted in from under the crack in the door of their room.
The smoke moved silently, filling the room and it was impossible to see how much of it there was.
The door creaked open with a soft thud.
“You're sure you've got the right anesthetic?”
“You wouldn't know it by looking at it. It's enough to make an elephant snap in three seconds.”
They were wearing gas masks with purification canisters.
They stared into the room, which was blurry from too much anesthetic gas.
“Whoa.”
At that moment, they heard a gasp.
“Who is that? Who is breathing so loudly?”
“It's not me.”
“It's not me, either. The sound in the first place.......”
It came from inside the room.
They didn't finish their sentence as their gazes turned to the room filled with white smoke.
They saw a blurry shadow of someone who should have been down, standing and then,
-Boom.
A pure white light erupted from the shadow's hand.